Deleting files with "illegal characters"

Fri, 08 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

In the cross-platform environment of our university, at least three different OS connect to the smb shared group directories. Apparently Macs are able to save files with characters that are not allowed on other platforms and which cannot be easily deleted. Recently we had several files which ended with a ‘.’ (dot) or a ’ ’ (space), and we were not able to remove them via the GUI. In Windows 7, I managed via the command line with:delete "file." ordelete "file "I have, however, not found a way to so from my Ubuntu machine and it is annoying to boot into Windows merely to delete some files. Unfortunately, this became necessary because the Cloudberry backup system (which is running on Ubuntu) chokes on such files. I am looking into a new backup system for our lab’s computers since CrashPlan decided to discontinue support for non-business customers…

Windows XP and deleting files with invalid filenames (The system cannot find the path specified)

Wed, 04 Apr 2007 00:00:00 +0000

I was fighting for several days to delete a file in Windows XP that started with dot underscore (.). The message was always: “The system cannot find the path specified”. Nothing worked. No safe mode, no command line, no special syntax. The Microsoft Knowledge Base addresses the problem, but instead of pointing to an easy solution it gives lots of useless and even wrong information , e.g the Windows XP Resource Kit didn’t contain the RM.EXE program, that was supposed to be able to delete those files with “weird” file names. Finally I found a software called Delete FXP Files , that did the job for me. However, how on earth did Windows manage to created such a file in the first place if its file name is invalid? The dot underscore . comes obviously from Macintosh, but in any case Windows must have allowed the creation of that file…

Dot on Michael’s Domain

Deleting files with "illegal characters"

Windows XP and deleting files with invalid filenames (The system cannot find the path specified)